Leadership
Departments
Customer Relations & Account Administration
Chelsea, Gabe, Jenni, Lisa, and Sue
Engineers & Technical Support
Arick, Dan, Dustin, and Matt
Quality Control
Chris G. and Chris S.
Manufacturing
Brian, Eric, Khamta, and Johny
Inventory & Shipping
Jennifer, Krupa, and Mum
Accounting & Purchasing
Dawn and John
Human Resources
Dawn and HR fractional support from Close HR
Meet our leadership team
Raj K. Bhandari, Ph.D.
President and Owner
At 19 years old, Raj Bhandari boarded an airplane for the first time and traveled to the United States from Nepal with just a backpack and the dream of pursuing a good education. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and minor in Biology from St. Cloud State University and went on to receive a Ph.D. in Chemistry from South Dakota State University.
As an experienced Sales and Marketing Manager, Business Development Manager, and a former Research Associate at the Harvard School of Public Health, Raj first joined Sciencix with a role in business development and marketing after being recruited by the previous owner. He immediately got to work to maximize the organization’s efficiency, refine the product pipeline, and cultivate a team that could deliver competitive advantages and capabilities. He was presented with the opportunity to step in as Sciencix President during the pandemic’s most critical moments when many companies were still struggling to survive and recover. Yet, his history as an overcomer had prepared him to lead the company to grow and thrive amidst a global challenge.
As the President and CEO of Sciencix, Raj has cultivated an organizational culture of excellent service recognized by customers around the world. He selected North Carolina as a business growth location for Sciencix in 2019, a state that has been repeatedly named #1 in the nation to work and live, with a robust and innovative business community. Raj quickly became recognized throughout the Research Triangle Park and the state of North Carolina as a business leader to watch and won the 2022 Business Journal’s Leadership in Diversity Award and the 2023 Business Journal’s Top CEO Award.
In May of 2023, Raj made headlines around the world when he was invited to the White House for a globally televised ceremony in which he was recognized by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and U.S. SBA Administrator Guzman as winner of the SBA’s 2023 Exporter of the Year Award for the entire United States. Raj also hosted a special on-site visit to the Sciencix Engineering Test Lab in Burnsville, Minnesota from Second Gentleman Emhoff and Administrator Guzman, who requested a tour of the facility to see Sciencix in-action and how our products are developed. He was invited to the Embassy of Nepal in Washington, D.C. by Ambassador Khatri in recognition of his history-making accomplishment, alongside of Sciencix VP of Operations Ranjan, as the first ever Nepali-Americans to be honored at the White House and receive such a prestigious national award.
With a new global platform, Raj initiated and hosted the first-of-its-kind Nepali-American Roundtable Event, which was co-hosted by the U.S. SBA and attended by NC senators and mayors, the NC Secretary of State, and Nepali-American small business owners to celebrate and bring awareness to this special and unique community.
In 2024, Raj received the Business Journal’s prestigious “40 Under 40” Award, which honors rising stars in the business world who have distinguished themselves and made significant impact in their companies, communities, and industries all before their 40th birthday.
His research has been published in the Journal of Analytical Toxicology, Journal of Chromatography, and Analytical Chemistry. In his research, Raj has developed, assessed, and validated bioanalytical methods and analytical test procedures. He is a member of the Vistage Executive Group, with awards that include the Sigma Xi Research Competition, Logue Chemistry and Biochemistry Award, ACS Award Grant for International Year of Chemistry, ORISE Fellowship, and SDSU Travel Award.
His passions in life include his wife and two children, world travel, and Minnesota Vikings football games.
Shradha Paudel
Executive Director and Owner
At 20 years old, Shradha Paudel boarded an international flight for the first time and traveled to the United States from Nepal, with the goal of pursuing a strong education and creating a purposeful future.
She attended South Dakota State University and obtained her bachelor’s degree in civil and environmental engineering while also serving as a research assistant. During her time as a student, Shradha developed a strong vision to combine her education and personal experience and become a unique force of positive impact with Nepali roots and a humanitarian heart. She further honed her vocational skills at an engineering consulting firm where she conducted geotechnical engineering, environmental services, and materials testing for residential, commercial, and industrial projects.
While attending SD State, she met another Nepali student named Raj, who shared her ambitious drive. The two were married and became a powerful team with diverse skills that caught the attention of the founder and owner of Sciencix. They were recruited to join the company in 2015, and Shradha immediately got to work to maximize the organization’s efficiency and cultivate a team that could deliver competitive advantages in a highly urgent and competitive industry.
Shradha then became a mother of two and devoted time to raising a young family with Raj. With a new perspective from motherhood, she served as a site engineer and case officer for the Rural Women Development Organization in Kathmandu, Nepal and helped develop projects focused on the health of refugees from Bhutan and Pakistan and programs for safer motherhood, mental health care, sanitation, and health education. In January of 2021, Shradha was asked to return to Sciencix as its new Executive Director during the pandemic’s most critical moments when most companies were struggling to survive. Shradha helped select a location and building to purchase for a new headquarter location to expand the business and personally designed each room inside, along with the building’s exterior aesthetics.
In May of 2023, Shradha and her husband made headlines around the world when they were invited to the White House and recognized by President Biden and Vice President Harris as the U.S. SBA’s 2023 National Exporter of the Year award winners for the entire United States of America. They were also invited to the Embassy of Nepal in Washington, D.C. by Ambassador Khatri and featured on Good Morning Nepal in recognition of their history-making accomplishment as the first Nepali Americans to be honored at the White House with such a prestigious national award.
A few months later, Sciencix received the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina Governor’s Award for global business impact. In 2024, Sciencix received the United States Department of Commerce President’s “E” Award and the NASBITE International Outstanding Exporter Award for the company’s contributions to the international ecosystem.
With a deep commitment to her Nepali roots, Shradha has become a global ambassador of diversity. She was recently honored by the Nepali Women’s Global Network in recognition of being a trailblazer in the Nepali diaspora and her achievement in global entrepreneurship. She and Raj have been invited to meet with presidents, national ambassadors, government leaders, and top business executives around the world, and Shradha remains driven to pave the way and open the door for women in business and the next generation of young Nepalis.
Ranjan Karki, MBA
Vice President of Operations
As Vice President of Operations at Sciencix, Ranjan Karki offers his skills as an engineering and operations manager specializing in new product development and project management. He has invested years to study and research various aspects of diverse chromatography and mass spectrometry systems that are extremely complicated and demand precision.
Ranjan came to the United States at nineteen years old from Nepal to pursue his education including a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from South Dakota State University and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Nebraska Lincoln. Ranjan has collaborated with global engineering teams to implement a “design anywhere, build anywhere” business strategy and was a featured presenter on simulation efforts at a national conference for the automotive industry. He has successfully designed cost structures to support multi-million-dollar organizational operations with multiple locations and repeatedly achieved targeted profit margins on a global scale.
In May of 2023, Ranjan made history when he was invited to the White House and honored by President Biden, Vice President Harris, and U.S. SBA Administrator Guzman for his role in developing and implementing exceptional operations strategies that led Sciencix to win the SBA’s 2023 Exporter of the Year Award for the entire United States. Ranjan was also honored with an on-site visit to the Sciencix Engineering Test Lab from Second Gentleman Emhoff and Administrator Guzman as they requested his guidance for a tour of the facility to see his operational leadership at Sciencix in-action and how the products are developed. Ranjan was invited as a guest to the Embassy of Nepal in Washington, D.C. by Ambassador Khatri in recognition of his history-making accomplishment, alongside of Sciencix President Raj Bhandari, as the first ever Nepali-Americans to be honored at the White House and receive such a prestigious national award.
In May of 2024, Ranjan received the Business Journal’s “Emerging Leader Award,” which recognizes manufacturing leaders in the industry that drive the economy through their innovation and business strategies.
Ranjan is known for his ability to think ahead with operational strategies that are effective and agile and grow international business partnerships, and he serves as a global ambassador for Sciencix at numerous international industry conferences each year. His affiliations include American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Pi Tau Sigma, and the Golden Key International Honor Society. His research has been published in the Journal of Composite Materials. He and his wife have a young daughter, and he is also an enthusiastic fan of the Minnesota Vikings football team.
Lisa Bamford, M.Sc.
Director of Business Development and Global Marketing
Lisa Bamford serves as the Director of Global Marketing and Business Development at Sciencix. She was born and grew up in Raleigh, NC and holds a Bachelor of Music double major in Classical Piano Performance and Music Theory from Meredith College, Post-Graduate studies in Pedagogy and Educational Psychology at Belmont University, and a Master of Science from Grand Canyon University.
In 1995, Lisa won the title of Miss North Carolina and represented her home state at the Miss America Pageant, winning the talent competition with her classical piano performance. After college, she moved to Nashville, TN and became a professional musician, including performances at the Grand Ole Opry and concert tours across the U.S. The entertainment business then took her to Dallas, TX, one of the largest broadcasting markets in the nation, and into the world of broadcast journalism as a radio station Communications Director and on-air co-host of a daily FM radio show.
An urgent family matter with her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis brought Lisa back to NC and inspired what she calls “a career 180” and a newfound passion to support medical research in a capacity that could combine her creative and analytical thinking. She worked full time while obtaining her Master’s Degree and began a new career path in pharmaceutical R&D, marketing, and business development. This new direction would lead to a serendipitous introduction to Raj Bhandari, the president of Sciencix, where she now serves alongside of her colleagues to support research laboratories in over 100 countries.
She is an executive committee member of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina World Trade Association and serves as president of the NCWTA’s Triangle Chapter. She is a state-wide advisory board member of the North Carolina Small Business and Technology Development Center. She won the Triangle Business Journal’s 2023 Leader in Diversity Award for helping to build a workforce with employees from diverse nationalities and backgrounds, along with her work in facilitating a high level of community engagement with various charity and non-profit organizations. Causes close to her heart include cancer research, mentoring youth and college age students, and the Samaritan’s Purse.
What our customers say
We are very happy to do business with Sciencix because Sciencix provides us good support and communication. The parts and kits are of good quality at a reasonable price range. The management team at Sciencix values their relationships with partners. It gains more trust and enhances ease of business.
Sciencix has supported me and my teams through~20 years of service with multiple employers. With their support and commitment to quality the service to my instruments has had an increase in up time of the HPLC systems from 92% to 98% on average. Breakdowns went from 71 per year to 7 and only one was traced to non-analyst issues.
Sciencix products provide the quality and performance we expect from OEMs, at a fraction of the cost. Their customer service and ease of doing business are second to none. Their supplier performance metrics consistently rank among the top of all our suppliers.
Our cost savings from purchasing Sciencix parts versus the OEMs is around 30-35%. And since we started ordering in 2022, we have not had a single part from Sciencix that has not met the quality level we expect.
As a service provider, we value the quality of the products fitted to our customers’ equipment above any other metric. Sciencix offers us the quality we desire, very fast delivery, and very quick responses to any questions we may have. Coupled to this is a cost saving that we can pass on to our customers.
Sciencix has been a key partner in our business growth over the last 5 years. They are very prompt and responsive to any issues that we have presented them and always go above and beyond to make sure we are taken care of.